'I messed up': LaGuardia Airport shut down after deadly collision

Two are dead and scores more are injured after a plane collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

When touching down on Runway 4 at approximately 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation struck a Port Authority Airport Rescue and Firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident, said the airport.

‘That wasn’t good to watch.’

Jazz Aviation confirmed that flight 8646 was en route to LaGuardia from Montreal and carrying 72 passengers and four crew members.

Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said during a press conference early Monday morning that “initial numbers indicate that 41 passengers and crew were transported to the hospital as well as the [Airport Rescue] officers. At this time, we understand that 32 have been released, but there are also serious injuries.”

Garcia confirmed that the pilot and first officer of the Air Canada flight were killed in the collision. The sergeant and the officer who were inside the truck are in stable condition with no life-threatening injuries.

Air Canada said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of two Jazz employees, and our deepest condolences go out to the entire Jazz community and their families.”

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Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

Jack Cabot, a passenger on the ill-fated flight, said, “We went down for a regular landing. We came in pretty hard. We immediately hit something, and it was just chaos in there. About five seconds later, we had come to a stop, but in that short period, I mean, everybody was hunkered down and everybody was screaming pretty quickly,” reported Canadian state media.

“We didn’t have any directions because the pilot’s cabin had been kind of destroyed, so somebody said, ‘Let’s get the emergency exit and get the door and let’s all jump out,’ and that’s exactly what we did,” added Cabot.

In audio capturing LaGuardia tower communication in the moments leading up to the collision, a ground controller can be heard instructing the truck, “Just stop there. … Stop, stop, stop, Truck One, stop, stop, stop! Stop, Truck One! Stop!”

The two-man vehicle was headed to a United flight that had reported an issue with an odor, according to Garcia.

“Jazz 646, I see you collide with a vehicle, just hold position,” continues the controller. “I know you can’t move. Vehicles are responding to you now.”

By that point, the cockpit was shorn off, with its occupants almost certainly dead.

An individual in the recording states, “That wasn’t good to watch.”

The controller who told the truck to stop responds, “Yeah, I know, I was here. I tried to reach out to ’em and stop ’em. We were dealing with an emergency earlier; I messed up.”

Garcia noted that where port authority rescue vehicles operating on the tarmac are concerned, “the procedure always is in deference to the control tower any time anyone is moving on any of our runways or taxiways,” and “they have to get clearance from the tower to move on our runways and our taxiways.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision.

LaGuardia, which warned travelers days earlier of “longer than usual wait times” at security checkpoints “due to staffing impacts from the federal funding lapse,” announced that the airport will remain closed until at least 2 p.m. on Monday — the first day of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ expected nationwide deployment to help with security lines at airports.

The New York Police Department announced Monday morning that all streets and highway exits into the airport have been closed until further notice.

According to Federal Aviation Administration data, LaGuardia was the 19th busiest American airport in 2024.

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